Apparentely, Mississippi law has changed, and casinos are no longer required to float.
Anyone here have the 411 on this?
If it's true, it would probably greatly speed up the replacements for the casinos destroyed by Katrina, not to mention allowing them to be bigger and better.
Some states allow �barges�. These look and feel like land-based casinos, but they are actually on the water, technically. I don�t know what they do: maybe they dig a little hole and allow some water to run underneath the casino.
Maybe this is what the governor was talking about.
I think MS changed the law last year. Casinos still have to exist "over water" but can now be built on pilings now, rather than having to actually "float"...
are floated in and then ballast tanks are filled that causes the Barges to be implanted on the sea/river bottom. They don't really float per se.
There will be a big push by the casino industry to allow the casinos in the future to be built on pilings to make them more secure for hurricanes. The law should really be changed to allow the casinos to be built on land on the other side of the road from the Gulf. The whole floating thing was a successful attempt to placate the anti-gaming lobby.
The water washes away all the bad side effects of gambling.
A new state law allows floating casinos to build permanent pilings so the barges can be stabilized in hurricanes. Bernie Burkholder, president and CEO of Treasure Bay Casino, told lawmakers in March that since 2002, storms had caused more than $34 million in damage to the casino (from Biloxi Newspaper)
But, hm, I thought the Gulfport Grand had permanent pilings -- those massive things sunk in many tons of concrete.
But, according to this morning's Sun-Herald, that barge is now sitting on top of the Coast Highway.
Gulfport Grand does have pilings as you described. But the barge floats up and down with the water, attached to sliding collars on the pilings.
For example, how does this help anything? If the thing (barge, old cruise ship, or whatever) has to actually float, I'm not sure what permanent pilings do, since the Grand already has what appears to my eye to be permanent pilings that let the barge rise and fall with the water level.
But the hurricane blew in 25'+ of water. If the barge floats as at the Grand, it would seem to have the same problem with the up and down motion tending to cause it to break away. If it is built at water level, and doesn't rise/fall, then what "level" do they choose (hopefully highest hurricane surge plus some delta).
So I'm not sure what this new law is supposed to provide. All I had heard was what was on the news this week, where the president of the Treasure Bay organization mentioned the new pilings law in passing, but didn't give any info other than "it would help in the future"...
Sure is a sorry mess down there right now. Have family on the coast that have given horrible reports of the beach area...
saw a worker from there describe the Grand Biloxi & that is what he said about it. Not sure though.
Same for riverboats...,but what does water of any type/config. have to do with anything?
Just saw the Copa on TV. Unfortunately it has shifted several hundred feet north. Looks like the best SD/DD game on the coast just got splattered all over the beach...
CNN had interior shots this AM. Grand CAsinos (both of them), President, Treasure BAy, and Hard Rock...all destroyed.
Do you mean cruise casino? Please tell me specificlly how it washes the bad side of gambling,is it easier to suicide when somebody can't suffer the big lose?
